Like many of these 70- to 80-year-old tech videos, the science and technology at hand has advanced by leaps and bounds, but the basic principles still apply. In the case of this 1936 Jam Handy video for Chevrolet on streamlining, uploaded to YouTube by USAutoIndustry, we may have figured out how to pare down aerodynamic drag to the nth degree nowadays, making the 1936 Chevrolet seem not so much technologically advanced as a veritable barn door, but the basic concepts of streamlining still apply.

There’s hardly anything I like more than these old films about the “future”. Anything to do with this era is so fun to see now, especially when it’s car-related like this one is. Or, the 1939 World’s Fair.. anything. I always fantasize about going back to those days when things seemed much more simple and people seemed more friendly and helpful than they do today. But, then there was the looming WWII and then the cold war and and and.. Maybe I’ll skip asking the Jeanne to make one of my wishes to go back 70-80 years.

It’s hard to imagine a vehicle being as non-streamlined as that Chevy is/was, wow! That’s probably why every vehicle looks like a melted bar of soap now; they’re streamlined.

You have to love the documentary style of that time. Funny thing was that Pierce Arrow & Chrysler, among a few others, really were streamlined. The Airflow actually led the way to the modern architecture of cars with putting the people package between the wheels and moving the engine over the front axle. This helped lower cars, & improve ride and handling. GM never really did anything aerodynamic looking until after WWII. The Y job being the exception.

I was growing during much of the streamlining era. By the time I was 4 or 5 years old [1935-1936], a lot of design refinements were already on the increase. Dad’s 1926 chevy touring car was very out dated. He traded it in on a ’35 Plymouth, what a change! The comparison was eye opening! In 1941, the folks traded the ’35 in on a new ’41 Special Deluxe four door, again a great improvement! It’s amazing to think back of it all, I do it quite often, usually through the late ’60s, after that, not so much….

European aircraft builders of the WW1 era like Voisin and Rumpler recognized the efficiencies of streamlining, and in the 1920s built teardrop-shaped automobiles, later echoed by French and Italian coachbuilders a decade later…while most American manufacturers ignored the theory until the Airflow of the mid 30s. The Airflow was a commercial failure, although in hindsight we know how advanced it was.

The Airflow failure is often blamed on the design aesthetics. Actually it received design awards, and was widely copied in Europe. It had more to do with slow ramp up and some initial quality issues due to the new type of semi-unibody construction, and a campaign by non-competitors to discredit it. In hindsight, lowering it and a different headlight treatment could have made a lot of difference. Also, look at the coupe, not the bus-like sedans and limos for the real design. Pricing was also a factor, being more expensive than class competitors. In terms of contemporary modern design it was a success, and really did change the architecture of the car to a modern configuration.

Hello:
One of the few streamlined cars which actually saw production and was made in quite a number was the Tatra type 87, successor of the type 77 which was more limited.
I was fortunate enough to own one of these a 1937 type 87 in original condition with only 35,000 odd KM. http://www.hulstaertphoto.us/1937-tatra-type-87/
It was technically very advanced with fourwheel independent suspension, rack-and-pionion steering, 4 speed air cooled overhead cam V8 and so on. The three liter engine gave it a top speed just shy of 100 miles. The virtually non-existent road holding with the V8 hanging behind swing axles gave it the nickname during the war as Czechoslovakia’s sercert weapon.
But,, I lloved every mile I drove it..

BE ADVISED THAT THERE IS ONE PERSON (ME) WHO LOVES THESE TRAINING/EDUCATION FILMS. MY HIGH-SCHOOL YEARS WERE IN THE 1950′S, MANY OF THESE TRAINING FILMS I CAN REMEMBER BEING SHOWN IN CLASS. KEEP THEM COMMING. RAY